Madrona-backed Gradial to Expand Agentic AI Ecosystem with Three Strategic Hires

/EIN News/ -- SEATTLE, Feb. 11, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gradial, the agentic AI content supply chain company backed by Madrona Venture Group, has tapped three strategic hires to expand the company’s ecosystem of technology platforms, digital experience agencies and enterprise customers. Jason Michaels joins as head of partnerships, Lisa Hillman as head of customer success and Cara Olson as a senior account executive.

Gradial is an agentic AI platform that supercharges content supply chains, enabling enterprises to drive smarter and faster engagements. The tool allows marketing teams to automate content updates, streamline enterprise migrations and generate pages at scale, breaking free from legacy systems and eliminating content debt. Large enterprises use anywhere from tens to hundreds to marketing technology tools but, according to research from Foundry, an IDG, Inc. company, only 29 percent of companies say they have the right tech to manage content across the organization, 32 percent have the technology but aren’t using its potential, and 28 percent say they haven’t acquired the right technology.

Founded in 2024, Gradial is already reducing friction, delivering operational cost savings and accelerating publishing speeds for Fortune 500 brands in the technology, healthcare, retail and financial services sectors. Over the past year, the company has also established strategic partnerships with companies such as Slalom, Huge, Dentsu, Infogain and EPAM Systems, delivering transformation initiatives for marketing leaders at world-leading companies.

“Gradial is changing the game for modern marketing teams, empowering them to focus on high-impact customer experiences and use Gradial to deliver, integrate and optimize content across the entire enterprise,” said Doug Tallmadge, Gradial’s co-founder and CEO. “Bringing in Jason, Lisa and Cara to build partnerships across the digital experience ecosystem represents the next evolution of our mission of creating agentic AI at enterprise scale.”

Michaels joins Gradial from Accenture Song, where he built and served as head of agency services for North America, leading a 1,000-person team responsible for strategic partnerships, digital user experiences and content supply chain optimization, and working with blue chip clients including Cisco, Intel, Microsoft and TIAA. Previously, he was managing director and chief strategy officer at Wire Stone, a creative marketing and user experience agency that Accenture acquired to amplify its marketing agency services business unit.

Hillman joins from Kaiser Permanente, the largest managed care company in the United States, where she was a senior director for digital services. Previously, she held senior corporate strategy, digital experience and operations roles at T-Mobile, worked with Fortune 500 companies as a consultant at Accenture, and served as chief operating officer at venture capital firm Tola Capital.

Olson joins from Merkle, a global digital marketing and customer experience agency, where she served as growth orchestration and enable officer as well as senior director for partnerships. Previously, she was senior director of partnerships and director of relationship marketing at DEG Digital, a digital experience, commerce and advertising services agency.

“When I saw Gradial, I saw something readily adoptable that customers already wanted but couldn’t find anywhere else,” said Michaels. “The product is powerful and the roadmap is exciting. Gradial has the opportunity to truly transform how enterprises and marketing teams operate at a scale I’ve never seen before.”

About Gradial

Founded by veterans of SpaceX and Microsoft and backed by Madrona Venture Group, Gradial is building a modern marketing content supply chain, partnering with enterprises, agencies and technology platforms to deliver reimagined digital experiences at scale. To learn more, visit https://gradial.com/.

Media Contact:
Sam Butler for Gradial
sam@35thAvenuePartners.com